‘Smallville’: The Finale

Tom Welling as Clark Kent and Erica Durance as Lois Lane in “Smallville.”

The last ten minutes of the series finale to Smallville moved at Saturday morning cartoon speed. We are in the newsroom of the Daily Planet—and we see Jimmy Olson. Editor Perry White is shouting “Great Caesar’s Ghost!” Bumbling Clark Kent bumps into Lois Lane on the stairs, and he apologizes. (But privately she asks him if he has the rings!) Then they hear of a bomb in an elevator downtown, and Clark races up to the roof—looks around, whips off his glasses, displays a noble profile—and rips open his shirt to display the Superman S underneath! To the sound of the John Williams theme from the Superman movies, he flies off (to save the day).

It was a long time coming. But gee, it was great. Kind of like the original comic books themselves. At long last. Flights and tights!

Other highs included several montages, the return of Lex Luthor, a plane rescue scene, some awww-provoking romantic moments. And even a “previously on Smallville” that included shots from the last ten years.

The finale opens with a shot of a comic book, as we see Chloe reading to a small boy from a comic book called “Smallville.” It’s about a kid from another planet, who had these powers, see, that he tried to resist… “he was about to face his greatest challenge…” she tells the rapt one.

Titles announce “seven years earlier…”

Close up on planets, cue ominous music, close ups of meteors. Titles.

At the Daily Planet, Lois and Clark converse. “You’re not in my way, Lois, you’re by my side,” he says.

Chloe and Oliver are at the church, decorating. They discuss their own wedding, and Oliver loyally says he would have married her even if he hadn’t been under a spell. It’s her job to get Lois to the altar, he says. And he shows her the gold rings he’s got ready, as best man. Cut to font of holy water bubbling black. Uh oh.

Tess is at the decrepit family mansion, looking at architectural plans, when Granny Goodness shows up. They have a verbal showdown about destiny, darkness and light. There’s a lot of this kind of thing in the episode. Granny Goodness offers so save her from Darkseid’s Apokolips (meaning the planet hurtling toward earth) by joining his rapture. “I will never join you!” Tess declares.

Meanwhile back on the farm (literally, there is a cow shot), Martha Kent is pissed off to see moving boxes at the family home. She tells Clark that she didn’t deed him the place so he could sell it. “Is this about dad?” Clark asks. This leads to talk about how you don’t need to let go of the past… and even Annette O’Toole can’t make this dialogue work. Meanwhile, the ghost of Jonathan Kent hangs around his wife, nodding.

Back at the Daily Planet, Lois looks efficient in a cinch belt. Chloe shows up, also in a cinch belt. She hands Lois Clark’s vows. In a voiceover, he says that when you love someone it’s not for a minute, but forever. Lois rushes off to get into her wedding dress.

Tess discovers there’s a glitch in communications when she tries to look at the satellite Chloe Two. Fortunately she can bring up Watchtower security—and there she sees Oliver doing something bad. More ominous shots of planets.

Oliver, with the Omega sign of thrall on his forehead, kneels to the forces of Badness.

Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum is back!) says his final mission to protect souls we’ve saved. Oliver takes a gold ring made of Kryptonite.

Oliver shows up to give him a pep talk. But Clark would rather ruminate. What if heroes aren’t destined to love? What if Lois is part of what he needs to leave behind? Also fluent, Oliver reminds him of how Clark pushed him to be who he could become.

Clark goes to see Lois and she won’t let him in, because it’s bad luck to see the bride before she gets to the altar. She slips her own vows under the door. Hers are full of proofreading marks (a nice shout out to her job). She’s a little bummed that there’s no one to walk her down the aisle, but, “the ones you love are always with you,” she says. When he reads her vows, which say that love is like the army, you only sign up if it’s the only thing you can ever imagine doing, he says he’ll see her at the chapel. A ladylike tear drips down her nose.

Men in black box Tess in as she drives fast to warn of the danger, and kidnap her.

At the church, the procession starts. Lois enters—but where is the groom? Then Clark appears to take her hand. He’s going to walk her down the aisle. Awwww. Jonathan Kent stands next to his wife.

Clark lifts the veil, a sort of wedding montage. He vows to take her to be his companion forever. Oliver holds out the ring. Chloe looks worried. As Lois takes it she shouts “noooooo!” Pandemonium. Oliver’s dark eyes show he’s Omega’d. Clark orders everyone out of the church. Oliver magicks Lois into a backwards flight, but Clark blurs himself into catching her (in the groom carrying the bride pose); he whooshes her out of the church and then comes back to talk Oliver down.

“Oliver, this isn’t you, don’t let it take you over!” and “I’m not giving up on you Oliver, you have a good heart! I know you’ll make the right choice!” In between they whack each other. The holy water font bubbles over with icky goo and cracks. “Listen, I believe in you!” Oliver can’t resist that. He crushes the ring, the Omega sign vanishes, after some icky goo tears, he is normal again.

But outside the window the planet’s really close. “Looks like the world’s going to need its heroes sooner than we thought,” Oliver says.

Clark has a scene with dead Dad, who says “I knew you’d see me again, when you were ready.” Clark is worried that Darkseid knows his weakness. Jonathan tells him “he never saw the man who’s standing before me now.” And he tells him that he must let Jor-El guide him now. When Clark points out that he shut him down, Jonathan replies “he’s your father, he’ll understand.” Mom adds, “don’t doubt yourself, Clark.”

Tess is on a lab table. Lionel Luthor welcomes her. He tells her that Lex cloned himself and gestures to a row of jars of body parts. “Lex is missing a heart, and who better to save him than the sister who loves him?” In the lab next door is a sewn together, Frankenstein-style, body waiting for a heart—Lex! But as they are about to begin the fatal operation, Tess kicks at the tray and grabs tools, and finally a gun. She shoots Lionel and beats it out of there.

Darkseid appears to Lionel and offers a trade: Lex can live, in exchange for your soul. Lots of smoke. Cut to a shot of Lex, all alive. His hand is the scarred hand we saw in the Frankenstein body in the next room.

Meanwhile, the planet is getting nearer. People on the sidewalk look scared.

Lois and Clark try to figure it out—Tess said the markings were some kind of anti-life force. Perhaps it has a gravitational pull. Clark must lift the darkness so he can break the tie between the people and the planet. They’ve also figured out the Luthor connection. Clark goes off to save the world.

Lois is worried that the president is planning to nuke the planet which will make things worse. She asks Janet Dawson, the reporter who’s going on Air Force One, to tell the president to hold off and “the Blur” will save us. Janet scoffs, so Lois whacks her over the head and takes her ID.

Clark confronts Lex at the Luthor mansion. Luthor recognizes their bond. “We have a destiny together, you and I… every villain is only as great as his hero.” Oliver is in another room doing something with the computers.

Meanwhile Clark tells Darkseid/Lionel: “I believe even in the darkest soul there’s always hope—it may be easier to hate but it’s stronger to love.” Darkseid replies, “It’s been centuries since he came face to face with one who could possibly tip the balance. You will surrender to me, you will lose your soul.”

In the Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El’s voice says “you have always had the power within you my son.” And we get a clip shot montage of Clark good moments from the past ten years.

Jor-El tells Clark to “seize your destiny.”

And Clark is back with Lionel. He holds out his arms, makes fists—and flies! Right at Lionel. Whom he vanquishes with one big bump.

Tess confronts Luthor—who stabs her, telling her “I’m actually saving you—from turning into me.” But as she wipes his face she tells him it’s too late, “the neurotoxin that you started paralyzes all cognitive recognition.” In other words, he’s going to lose his memory. Another clip montage of great moments from Luthor’s life as his memory banks erase.

In the Fortress of Solitude, Jor-El says “your journey has come to an end, Kal-El.” In one of the ice blocks rising up we can see… could it be… a Superman suit? Jor-El says that while his Kryptonian abilities are his blood, “it is your time at Smallville and all the people there that made you a hero.” Jonathan Kent appears—and he holds the suit out. Clark kneels down, the ice crashes and as he rises into the air somehow the suit dresses itself on him.

Clark first saves the Air Force One plane, which was crashing. Lois sees him outside the window and they grin at each other. It’s cute. On the sidewalk, Oliver mutters encouraging things. Clark stops the planet. All the omegas burn off of the onlookers’ foreheads, and they hug one another. Clark tosses the planet into space…

And turns back into a cartoon from the framing comic strip. “That was the day the boy turned into Superman,” Chloe reads. She flicks off the lights, then phones Lois—to whom she’s just sent something blue.

At the Daily Planet, Lois is bossing around Jimmy Olsen. On television, the president is about to give a speech—it’s Lex Luthor. Clark and Lois share a moment on the stairs, and he shows her that he’s got the rings ready.

But when he hears about the bomb in the elevator uptown—he says, “tell the minister I’m going to be a few minutes late.” And there’s music! And he races to the roof!